


Freaky 'Phriday'

by itsnotyuki



Category: Amazingphil - Fandom, Danisnotonfire - Fandom, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Gen, Phanfiction, Platonic Relationships, Rated Teen and Up because of language/swearing, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-08 13:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3211031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsnotyuki/pseuds/itsnotyuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Platonic Phanfiction spin-off from ‘Freaky Friday’. Dan's parents have gone to India for Christmas and Dan is feeling alone. Phil invites Dan to have Christmas dinner with his family, but Dan refuses and wants to be alone. After the argument, Phil makes a Japanese potion to switch bodies with Dan - without telling him - so that Dan will be forced to attend Phil's family Christmas dinner (in Phil's body) in order to not disappoint Phil's family. Meanwhile, Phil (in Dan's body) stays behind in the flat and gets a surprise ready for Dan.</p><p>Can Phil help Dan realise that, despite his parents leaving him at Christmas, he is loved by Phil and Phil's family? Or will Dan be miserable and think that only the love (or lack of) from his family is the only love that matters?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 'Special-herbal-green-tea-or-something'

'Really, Phil? You just don't get it. The 25th of December is the same as any other fucking day. The only difference is that everyone expects you to be cheery and happy, and you have to spend all day stuffing yourself while surrounded by family members you've never even heard of. Why would I want that? And why would I want to have dinner with a family that isn't even mine?!' Dan screamed - probably a little too loud, but he didn't care any more. Phil just doesn't understand how Dan sees the world. To Dan, not everything is fairy dust and cupcakes.

'FINE.' Phil shouted back at him. 'I just thought that maybe you'd like to join me and my family for Christmas Day seeing as your family is buggering off to India without you, but no. I WANT you to be there because, to me, you're part of my family.' Phil's voice faltered slightly when he said family and suddenly tears began to form in the corners of his icey blue-green eyes. 'Stay here. Stay here alone. I just thought-' tears were streaming down his cheeks and he clasped his hand over his quivering mouth. Phil ran out of the living room and down the stairs which was followed by the loud bang of a bedroom door after a few seconds.

Phil was lucky to have such a loving and big family, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for Dan. Phil knew how lonely Dan got. He wasn't exactly close to any of his family, and on more than one occasion Dan had asked Phil or PJ for their help, rather than his own parents. Phil flopped face-down onto his brightly coloured duvet. His head was on the pillow with his hands tucked underneath and lay still for a little while. He turned on his left side and grabbed his iPhone out of his back pocket. Launching the Safari app, he searched 'how to make a friend understand your point of view calmly'. The first search result was from a website called WikiHowJapan.com and seemed relevant enough. It read:

_How to understand your stubborn friend's point of view:_

_Step 1: Buy two decaffeinated green tea teabags and put them in two separate mugs._  
Step 2: Pour boiling water into the mugs until they are half full. Add one teaspoon of honey and a quarter of an Orin Apple in each mug. Do not stir the tea. Leave it to brew for 2 minutes.  
Step 3: Remove the pieces of apple. Fill the mugs up with more boiling water until they're full. Stir the tea three times anti-clockwise. Serve to you and your friend before you go to sleep. 

_Wait 12 hours to see results. You and your friend are 100% guaranteed to understand each other in a completely new light._

* * *

'Dan' Phil shouted. 'I made you some special herbal green tea or something. It's supposed to be really good for you. Open up.' Dan was at his bedroom desk browsing tumblr in his pyjamas which currently consisted of his lilac Lumpy Space Princess shirt and black boxer shorts. Dan contemplated ignoring Phil because of their earlier argument. Special-herbal-green-tea-or-something sounded like an invitation for a long chat about feelings and Dan really wasn't in the mood for that. Dan loved Phil. In fact, Phil was the closest person to Dan, but Dan didn't want to admit that. It's kind of pathetic, really. Being closer to your best friend than your whole family combined. Going to Phil's parents' house is admitting that Dan feels...well, detached from his own family. He felt like he didn't belong - there was just a lack of love and communication. But he knows he shouldn't care - what are family? They're just friends you're forced to live with. What is so significant about your family? You're just one life, and with your parents that makes three lives. Three lives in the whole vast universe are nothing. What's the point of families?

'Dan?' Phil repeated. Dan snapped back into reality and realised he had been daydreaming while walking across his bedroom, his hand now on the door handle. He swung the door open. 'Hey' he sheepishly said to Phil.


	2. 'The tea. It must’ve been the tea. Well, shit.'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil wakes up and, oh shit, he's Dan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's very short. I think maybe short chapters out quickly will be the way to go? This is just some story set up but the next chapter will have a tiny bit of set up for Dan and then properly start the story :) Harsh feedback is still welcomed :3

The ‘special-herbal-green-tea-or-something’ tasted good, and sent both Dan and Phil into a deep sleep. They didn't have another argument and they didn't have a long chat either. The only conversation they shared that night was a couple of texts.  


 _To Phil ; From Dan ; 19:00_  
thx for the tea, it was actually really good. sorry for shouting…  


 _To Dan ; From Phil ; 19.01_  
Sorry for shouting too. It was Lion, not me. I swear …  


 _To Phil ; From Dan ; 19:02_   
wow. that soft lion toy’s english is really coming alone  


 _To Phil ; From Dan ; 19:02_   
*along. god dammit.  


 _To Dan ; From Phil ; 19.03_   
I know, it’s even better than your English! Haha ;)  


  


**7 am, 25th December (12hrs 30mins after the tea).**  
 _[From now on, when I say ‘Phil’ I'm talking about Phil’s mind/consciousness in Dan’s body. When I say ‘Dan’ I'm talking about Dan’s mind/consciousness in Phil’s body.]_   


Phil woke up because he felt uncomfortable. He was lying on his right-hand side like usual but his legs were cold, so he tucked himself into a little ball. He went to hug his arms around his legs but then realised he didn't have his neon green pyjama trousers on. He could've sworn he had put them on before he went to sleep. He moved his legs around the bed to see if he could find them under the duvet somewhere but couldn't so he pushed the duvet off himself, sat upright, opened his eyes and reached for his glasses on his bedside table. He couldn't see them, but he could see clearly. He touched his face to feel the frames - he wasn't wearing them and his skin felt softer than usual. ‘Dammit.’ He thought. ‘I didn't take my contacts out.’ 

Phil looked back at the bed to find his pyjamas. He was in Dan’s bed. He turned to his right to ask Dan why he was here but Dan wasn't in the bed. He looked back at his legs, but they weren't his – they were much darker. He couldn't remember owning this pair of black boxers either. Phil jumped out of bed and ran over to the square mirror than Dan had leaning against his bedroom window, but his reflection just showed Dan. Pulling at his face, he hoped this was just some horrible dream. He bit his hand but he didn't wake up so he slapped his own face but that didn't work either. This wasn't a dream. Why did this happen?  


Phil ran into his own room, and saw himself lying in his bed, sound asleep. That’s when he saw the cup of ‘special tea’ on his bedside table. The tea. It must've been the tea. Well, shit. Phil grabbed his phone and frantically searched his Safari App history to find the tea recipe. Once he found it, he scrolled down to the bottom for the comments on the post, but noticed a note at the end of the recipe. It read:  


_Warning: This ancient recipe uses black magic that will cause the consciousness of the two drinkers to be swapped. Simply put, you will ‘swap bodies’. In order to switch back, your partner must come to realise what you wanted them to realise’._  


‘…So Dan needs to realise that love, or lack of it, from your family is not the only thing that matters, and that my family and I love him?’ Phil spoke aloud, talking to himself. Even his voice sounded like Dan’s. Dan, still fast asleep in Phil’s body and bed, murmured. Phil looked up and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the chest of drawers. He quickly scribbled ‘Dan, hey. So the tea made is swap bodies, I'm sorry. I know this is confusing but just deal with it. You’re in my body and I'm in yours. You need to go visit my family for Christmas, otherwise they’ll be so upset. Please don’t let them down. We’ll swap back soon, I promise. I'm going out. See you soon – Phil x’ and left the note on his bedside table.

He picked up his glasses and carefully placed them on Dan’s face, thinking that swapping bodies is enough of a shock and Dan didn't need to deal with waking up blind too. Then he went back to Dan’s room and got Dan’s phone and placed it on the note for him. Before he set it down, he set an alarm for 8am so that Dan could catch the train to Manchester on time – the train tickets were already on the bedside table. Grabbing his own wallet and keys, Phil left the flat as quietly as he could.


	3. 'Siri, call Phil Lester.'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan asks what the fuck is going on before visiting the Lester family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please remember that from now on, when I say ‘Phil’ I'm talking about Phil’s mind/consciousness in Dan’s body. When I say ‘Dan’ I'm talking about Dan’s mind/consciousness in Phil’s body. (UNLESS I say differently. I'll try and make it clear but if you get confused at a certain part, please tell me so I can change it ^_^ )
> 
> Difficult stuff in this chapter:  
> -To 'give someone kudos' means praising the person. So 'kudos to Phil' means praising Phil for doing something right.  
> -A 'caramel macchiato' is a coffee drink  
> -'Tokyo Ghoul' is an anime

**8 am, 25th December**

Dan woke up to the sound of his alarm. He was lying on his back and felt uncomfortably hot and weighed down by his clothes and duvet. Hi face was itchy. Scratching his nose, he realised that he had glasses on. He pulled the glasses off roughly, sat up and open his eyes. Instead of seeing his window and monochrome room, he was bombarded with blurry blues and greens and Dan momentarily stopped breathing and panicked. He shoved the glasses back on his face and shouted 'Phil, why the fuck am -' With eyes wide, Dan's hands flew up to his mouth and violently turned left, hoping to see Phil. Phil wasn't there. The alarm turned off, so Dan reached to his - well, Phil's- bedside table to find a note from Phil.

***

**11:30 am**

'Siri, call Phil Lester.' Dan sighed. He gave kudos to Phil for being sensible enough to let Dan keep his own phone (and vice versa for Phil) otherwise Dan might just have gone insane. Or maybe he already was. People don't just swap bodies like this. 'Hello?' the other end of the phone said. It was Phil who said these words, but he had the voice (and body) of Dan. Dan hesitated. Hearing his own voice was weird, and he still wasn't comfortable with speaking in Phil's voice. 'Dan? Hello?' Phil repeated. Dan snapped back into reality and said 'Fucking finally, it's about time you picked up your phone. This is only the twelfth time I've called you!' which would've earned him a disapproving look if anyone else was in the train carriage with him. 'Sorry.' Phil replied. 'I turned my phone off because-' Dan interrupted by shouting 'because you did some voodoo black magic shit that meant that I had to trust YOU with my body and you knew I'd be livid? Guess what? You're right! How long is this going to last? For fucks sake, Phil. Thank you. Thank you for messing with my consciousness and body. If you hadn't left a note, I would've probably jumped off a cliff in an attempt to wake up from this nightmare.' Dan took a deep breath, and Phil took this as an opportunity to speak up. 'Why didn't you just bite your hand? That's what I did. Oh. Wait. I guess it was your hand, not mine. Sorry. There are no teeth marks don't worry. Also, it's so awesome to be able to see properly! Sorry about the glasses. I put them on your face so you wouldn't have to wake up blind though. Swapping bodies is enough of a shock.' Phil laughed. Dan failed to see what was so funny. 'You didn't answer my question. How long is this going to last? Do we have to chant some old-age poem to get back to normal?' Dan waited for an answer. 'I... Um... no, we don't have to chant something to get back to normal. It happens on it's own, but I can't say when...sorry.' Phil apologised. Dan frowned. '...Right. Okay. Hang on, I'm at my station and I need to get off the train. I'll text you when I'm on the bus to your house. What bus is it again?' Dan got up and made his way to the train doors. '43' Phil replied, and Dan ended the phone call.

* * *

 _To Phil ; From Dan ; 11:45_  
why? 

_To Dan ; From Phil ; 11:45_  
Why what? :P 

_To Phil ; From Dan ; 11:45_  
why did you make us swap bodies? you gave me the tea. you know that we'll swap back. was it just because, and i quote, "it's so awesome to see properly"? :/ 

_To Dan ; From Phil ; 12:01_  
Sorry for the late reply - I'm out shopping and I just sat down for a break. I love how London shops are open on xmas day! I didn't actually know that the tea would make us swap bodies until I woke up as you and searched the recipe up and looked at the fine print... :/ Don't worry. I won't ever follow a recipe from WikiHowJapan.com again. I promise. 

_To Phil ; From Dan ; 12:03_  
wikihowjapan.com? really, phil? really? (...i have never been so happy to go to bed in clothes) also, be careful. don't go hurting me, okay? i know what you're like and i don't wanna go back into a half beaten body that's tripped UP stairs. jfc, you're a liability. if my body gets damaged then i better be coming home to a caramel macchiato and tokyo ghoul on DVD. anyways, i'm on your street. see you later. i have to be sociable with someone else's family...

Dan walked up to Phil's house and took a minute to compose himself. 'C'mon, Dan. You can do this. You are Phil. You are happy. You are colourful. Do this for Phil and Phil's family. Christmas and family mean so much to him and you don't want to ruin someone else's relationship with their family too, do you?' Dan sighed and knocked on the door. In no time at all, Phil's mother opened the door with a big smile on her face and embraced Phil's body in a tight hug. Kissing him on the cheek she cheerfully said 'Phil! It's been ages since I saw you last. Merry Christmas! I've missed you, my beautiful boy. Now come inside where it's warm and open your presents!' She stepped back, allowing Dan to step inside before she shut the door. Dan silently wished that his own mother missed him while she was away on another continent. Mrs Lester looked at Dan, her hands on his shoulders, and frowned. 'No Dan?' she asked. 'N-No. He didn't want to come.' She frowned even more and hugged Dan tightly again. Before letting go she whispered 'This hug is for him so make sure you give it to him and send him our love. Oh, and you'll have to take his presents back down to London with you.' Dan hugged her back and smiled, surprised at the kindness from someone else's parents. 'You got me presents?' Dan said, shocked. 'Him.' He quickly corrected himself. 'Of course we did. We wanted him to have something to open! It's just a shame he's not here to open it.' Mrs Lester frowned again before turning and walking into the living room. A pain went through Dan's heart. 'I'm sorry.' He whispered to himself. 

Dan had dressed Phil's body in Phil's blue Christmas jumper with a UFO giving presents, a pair of black skinny jeans and a pair of converse. He took off his coat and walked into the living room. Mrs Lester was back in the kitchen cooking and the rest of Phil's family - his father, brother and grandmother - stared at him and all spoke a greeting at the same time. It was a mixture of 'Merry Christmas', 'Hey Phil' and 'Merry Xmas bro' and they all burst out laughing at the barely audible mess. Dan laughed too, instantly feeling at ease in the room full of smiling people wearing ridiculous Christmas jumpers. Phil's grandmother was wearing a Rudolf jumper the while sitting on a small grey suede sofa with Martyn, Phil's older brother, who wore a green elf jumper. Dan walked up to them to shake their hands but remembered that he's supposed to be Phil, so Dan kissed their cheeks instead. He walked over to Phil's father who was sat in an arm chair that matched the two grey suede sofa's in the big living room. The tall, grey-haired, strong man wearing a Santa Claus jumper stood up and tightly hugged Dan. 'I've missed you, son.' The tight grasp was warm and soothing to Dan, even though he barely knew Phil's father. Dan walked to the empty larger sofa and sat down. This sofa had a centre view of the large TV on the far wall, while the arm chair was at an angle on Dan's right-hand side and the smaller sofa was on his left. Behind the smaller sofa was a dining space and on the left of the dining space was the door to the large kitchen where the smell of cooking turkey was coming from.

Martyn, Phil's older brother, was blonde and looked a lot like Phil's mother. He smiled at Dan before saying 'Sorry, Phil. We opened our presents without you...Dad was too excited.' 'Hey! Don't go pinning it all on me, you were the one trying to guess what all the presents were!' Phil's dad jokes. 'I hope you don't mind four people staring at you while you try to pretend that you love your presents of socks and ties!' Dan laughed but on the inside he was panicking. 'How do I get around this? I can't just open all of Phil's Christmas presents for him.' Dan thought to himself. He glanced at Phil's family members in turn and Phil's mum entered the room. 'Did somebody say presents?' She smiled sweetly. 'Come on, Phil. Present time!' She grabbed Dan's wrist and pulled him to the Christmas tree which was behind the armchair and near the window against the front of the house. 'Actually,' Dan said. 'I have all of your Christmas presents from Ph- me. Your presents from me. They're in the hall in my backpack, let me just get them.' Dan left the room and closed the door, taking a deep breath. 'Okay, Dan. You're going to give them their presents first and use that time to think of an excuse to not open Phil's presents. Phil Loves Christmas. I can't open his presents for him.' Dan picked up Phil's backpack filled with presents and entered the room again. He had no idea what Phil bought them, to be honest. 'You guys should go first.' Dan said cheerfully, trying to remind himself to act more like Phil's happy self. He had a present for each of Phil's family members who were now sat around the tree, except for his grandmother who came and sat on the air chair while turn her head to see the rest of the family. Dan handed the presents out and lazily dropped the backpack at an angle on the floor next to the armchair, causing a thinly wrapped present to fall out. Grandma Lester reached down to get the present which looked like an envelope in bright red wrapping paper and smiled 'Phil, dear? You forgot a present.' She turned the present over to find a large green metallic tag which was almost half the size of the present. Phil's Grandma read it out. It said:  


_To Dan, Happy Christmas! ^_^ I brought you the world's flattest piano...okay I'm just kidding, but this present is even better than that. Make sure I'm in the room when you open it, okay? I know we had a price limit, but this present is just as much for you as it is for me, okay? So that doesn't count. Besides, you're my best friend so I can buy you what ever I want. ;) - Love from Phil <3 _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such a weird place to end but I think it's been over two weeks since I posted the last chapter - sorry :( I'm really looking forward to finishing this though! If you see any mistakes, please correct me. And any feedback is welcome :) 
> 
> I searched how long it takes to catch a train from London to Manchester. That dedication :/ 
> 
> p.s. Let's ignore the following things which are incorrect in this fic:  
> -trains running on Christmas Day  
> -buses running on Christmas Day  
> -Dan being so cool with waking up as Phil  
> -London shops being open on Christmas Day (I'm guessing this isn't true. I don't live in London but I'm sure 99.9% of the shops are closed 
> 
> Don't worry, more incorrect concepts will likely follow (I am so sorry)


	4. 'Stopped by the tears threatening to fall'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Dan sighed. How was he? He didn't even know himself. Angry? Angry at Phil for forcing this on him for however long. Will he ever switch back? Yet still, Dan wasn't angry at Phil. Not really. It was an accident and, in all honesty, Dan had loved the day with the Lesters.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos to anyone who read this when I accidentally published this chapter when it wasn't completed. I thought it was the save button :/

'So, how is Dan?' Mrs Lester asked Dan, still unaware that Dan's and Phil's consciousness had swapped - meaning that Phil's body was just an empty shell, filled by another who Phil loved dearly. They were practically brothers. 

Dan sighed. How was he? He didn't even know himself. Angry? Angry at Phil for forcing this on him for however long. Will he ever switch back? Yet still, Dan wasn't angry at Phil. Not really. It was an accident and, in all honesty, Dan had loved the day with the Lesters. 

It was six in the evening now and all the presents had been opened, despite Dan's reluctance of opening his best friend's present. Of course, Dan could get away from opening his own present from Phil seeing as, as far as the Lesters know, Dan wasn't here. He also didn't want to open the present seeing as Phil had asked so nicely for Dan to wait until Phil could watch him open the present. 

Angry? No. Happy? Yes. The Lester's had asked about Phil and Dan's shared work, showing as much as an interest in Dan as they had for their own family member. They'd asked about Dan's health because of the terrible illness he had at the start of December. They'd asked about Dan's love life (or lack of it) and much more, earning comments such as 'Isn't he a nice boy?', 'He has always been so polite and thoughtful.', and 'You should bring him up here more often. We'd love to hear from him.' 

Dan had had such a lovely day. But what about Phil? A pain stabbed Dan's heart. Phil was alone. Phil was alone on Christmas Day. Why had Phil left the house this morning - was he scared of Dan's reaction? Was he afraid that Dan would hate him? And if this was the case, surely Dan's earlier comments must have really hurt Phil on his favourite day of the year. Dan frowned, something which didn't go unnoticed by the real Lesters. 

'Phil, honey?' Mrs Lester said quietly. 'Is everything okay? Is Dan okay?' 

Dan looked up, unaware of how long he was silent for. '...No, Dan isn't okay. I think Dan is upset. I think he feels sad that he's spending Christmas alone and because I, as friend, yelled at him for something he accidentally did.' Dan sighed, trying to describe how Phil must feel right now. Then he thought about himself. 'As well as very upset because-' He breathed in heavily. 'B-because he doesn't know if...if his family care about him.' Dan was stopped by the tears threatening to fall. 

The atmosphere changed. The comfortable silence caused by a meal fit for a king (and perhaps a little too much wine) disappeared.

Mr Lester was the first to break the deafening silence. 'Now, we don't know Mr and Mrs Howell too well, but we know that they love Dan to pieces. They've never said a bad word against him, except for what happened when he went to Vegas with you and, trust me, we all laughed it off. But different people show love in different ways. Love and care from just two parents is equal to the love and care you gain from a big family. And it's equal to the love and care you get off friends too. Sure, not all your friends. But a friend like you, Phil...we don't doubt that you love and care for Dan as if he were your family. Care from your family is not the only thing that matters. Friends are the family we choose.'

The tears were falling now. Something Mr Lester said really touched Dan's heart and he was right - Phil cared a lot for Dan. He was always there to support him. He even asked Dan to join him and his family at Christmas to stop Dan feeling lonely. All this time, Phil was always there for him. Phil...well, Phil was like a brother to him, and Dan took him for granted sometimes. 'I'll make sure Dan hear's those exact words.' He breathed. 'I'm sure he'd be very grateful about what you just said.' He truly was grateful. 

Dan's phone beeped. Reaching into his skinny jean's back pocket, he saw a text from Phil which read:

_To Dan ; From Mum ; 18:14  
Hey Dan - Merry Christmas! Your Dad and I send you lots of love and hugs - we miss you. I especially miss you. It was a nice idea to go on holiday for Christmas, but it's just not the same without you. I know you think you're too cool for your parents but, next year, it would be very very lovely if you could spend xmas with us. See you soon? Love from Mum and Dad xoxoxo _

That's when Dan realised his parents really did love him, they just showed it in a weird way sometimes. Love is a two-way street and Dan needed to open-up to his parents more. Realising his parents do in fact love him was the first step to get back into his own body. The next steps were realising that family is not the only thing that matters, and realising that Phil and the other Lesters love and care for Dan. He was already starting to realise these things after Mr Lester's kind words. 

Grandma Lester huffed. 'You should open up to Dan more and he should step into your shoes.' Oh, if only she realised the irony right now. 'Maybe he'd be grateful knowing that family is not just biological. Phil, you're a part of Dan's family, just not biologically. Just like you. We aren't your biological family, yet you are a part of this family and we love you very dearly.'

Looking up at the woman, Dan's face was filled with confusion. 'Wait, what do you mean?' He asked. 

'I was referring to the fact you're adopted.' She said slowly. 'I hope I haven't upset you sweetie - I know you don't like talking about this around us. You know, I never think of you as an adopted grandson. You are and always will be a Lester.' 

The tears had stopped and all Dan could do was gawk at Phil's family members. His red eyes were red. His mouth was wide open. He was frozen. Phil was adopted?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI: Phil isn't really adopted irl (and, if he is, he hasn't hinted to it in any of his content). This is just a made-up story point.
> 
> It's almost 1am here and I haven't proof read it, okay? I wrote most of this on a train after having like 5hrs sleep okay. Criticism welcome :3


	5. 'Friends are the family we choose'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter!
> 
> Sorry not sorry for the lamest chapter title ever

Finding out that Phil was adopted gave Dan a lot to think about on the train journey back to London. Why had Phil not mentioned it before? They were best friends. As intriguing as Dan thought it was, he asked no questions - partly because it would look weird if someone couldn't even remember their own adoption, but mostly because he wanted to respect Phil's privacy. After all, Phil's grandmother had said that Phil didn't like talking about it. But why had he _never_ mentioned it? 

Before getting on the train, Dan bought some gold shiny wrapping paper, a pair of scissors and some sticky tape. Luckily the train was mostly empty so Dan spread out all of Phil's now-opened Christmas presents and carefully wrapped each one back up. Christmas and family meant a lot to Phil, and he missed out on this one year event. Dan felt bad enough opening all his presents so wrapping them back up was the least he could do - at least Phil could have one part of Christmas, just not his family. 

Dan thought about his time at the Lester household and how he actually enjoyed it. It was fun. He had felt so loved - from both 'being Phil' and the comments his family had made about Dan. That's when it clicked. Family isn't just biological. Phil was adopted but that didn't matter - they were still family. That's why he didn't talk about it. They _were_ is family. Biology doesn't matter, family is family. We all need to make an effort to keep up to date with them in order to remind ourselves that they are actually there and that they love us very much. Events like Christmas, birthdays weddings... they bring us together; and that applies to friends too, not just our biological and lawful family. Friends are the family we choose. 

Dan's heart hurt. He needed to phone his parents. He needed to tell them that he loved them. He needed to see Phil. He needed to say thank you for helping Dan to realise this, and because Phil has always, ALWAYS been there for Dan. 

_To Phil ; From Dan ; 19:50_  
hey, i'll get back to the flat at about half eight. the train i'm on is red and i have all your christmas presents so i'm like black santa or something rn 

_To Dan ; From Phil ; 19:50_  
Okays! See you soon. ^_^ 

**20.40 / 8:40pm, Christmas Day, Dan & Phil's flat, London.**

It sounds silly, it really does, but the flat meant a lot to Dan. It was his home with Phil, and there was nothing more reliving than coming home after a long day of socialising and just sitting on the internet with Phil. Dan pushed open the door to the living room and saw Phil (well, Phil in Dan's body) standing very close, obviously waiting for him, smiling. 

'MERRY CHRISTMAS DAN!' Phil screamed, launching himself at Dan and tightly wrapping his arms around him. 'I've missed you! Also I'm still not used to you being in my body. I was really confused for a second.' 

Dan just smiled closed his eyes. 'Phil,' he said, breaking the hug and sliding his arms down. 'I-' 

'No, Dan. Shush! Me first.' Phil interrupted. 'Surpriseeee!' He said, throwing his arms up and hitting the dining table while he did so. 'Ow.' Phil rubbed his hand while pouting. 

'Hey, hey, hey. Be careful with the paint work- my body is a temple, I don't want it back scarred....And I'm confused, what should I be surprised about?' Dan said puzzled. Him and Phil were still standing in the living room doorway and Dan couldn't see the rest of the room that Phil had spent all day preparing. 

'Oops, you can't actually see...' Phil giggled, and took a couple steps backwards while tugging on Dan's shirt. 'Surprise mark two!' Phil extended his right arm to show off the rest of the room to Dan. Phil had added to the decorations and used silver snowflake bunting on the windowsills, the coffee table and the fireplace. Phil had added to the pile of Dan's presents under the tree which were wrapped in the only wrapping paper left in the house which was pink and flowery. On the coffee table lay two pizzas, a chocolate cake, a DVD and a Starbucks drink. The room smelled of cinnamon and pine trees from the newly-lit oil burner above the glowing fireplace and, in the background, Dan could hear the faint sounds of all the Christmas songs that make you feel fuzzy and warm inside. 

'Oh!' Phil said, 'I accidentally burnt your fingers while trying to make you some home-made pizza and a triple chocolate cake so, as promised, there's a DVD boxset of Tokyo Ghoul and a caramel macchiato on the coffee table for you. It's been like 5 minutes so you might want to drink it n-' 

Phil was pulled into a tight embrace from Dan. 'Is all this for me?' Dan asked, bewildered. He was smiling for England. He truly was lucky to be so loved.

'Yes' Phil mumbled, his head pressed against Dan's chest (or, technically, Phil's chest that is currently occupied with Dan's consciousness). 'But there's something else.' Phil walked over to the Christmas tree near the TV and the window, scanning the presents under it. Dan followed. 'I think you took one of your Christmas presents to Manchester with you in my bag. It's thin and bright red with a green tag on it. Do you have it?' Phil sat down. 

Dan sat down too and threw his backpack in-between them. 'Yeah, saw it earlier.' Dan fished around and pulled out the envelope in red wrapping paper. 'These are all your presents by the way. Except two of them which are mine, but obviously I couldn't open ''Dan's'' presents.' Dan read the green tag again. 

_To Dan, Happy Christmas! ^_^ I brought you the world's flattest piano...okay I'm just kidding, but this present is even better than that. Make sure I'm in the room when you open it, okay? I know we had a price limit, but this present is just as much for you as it is for me, okay? So that doesn't count. Besides, you're my best friend so I can buy you what ever I want. ;) - Love from Phil :3_

Phil looked at Dan excitedly. 'I'm not saying I'm the bestest best friend ever, but I am, let's face it.' 

'Oh God.' Dan said while unwrapping and opening the envelope. 'What did you even buy?' Dan was expecting some sort of photograph or maybe an all-day spa pass - anything except for what it actually was. '...Are you...are these...I, Phil, oh my God are you fucking serious?!' Dan grinned stupidly and Phil returned it. 

'Yup! Two plane tickets to Japan! You and me. We're going to Tokyo for a week and then meeting up with Duncan and Mimei and staying with them for a couple days in February!' Phil smiled with his tongue sticking out between his teeth. 'Do you know how hard it was to keep this from you?! I've had a tweet using all the Japanese emojis in my Twitter drafts for months!' 

Dan just stared at Phil, speechless 'I... I just. I can't even, Phil. I can't even. You are testing my heterosexuality. Don't ever leave, you are my favourite person in the whole freaking universe.' 

Grinning, Phil replied 'Okay but can we freak out about going to Japan while eating pizza because it's getting cold.' Dan placed the tickets back in the envelope and stood up at the same time as Phil. 'Oh...Dan, I don't feel so good.' Phil tried to steady himself but fell backwards onto the floor. Dan took a step forward to grab onto Phil but it was too late. Dan felt dizzy and sick. He fell on top of Phil, his arms fell at Phil's side and stopped their bodies colliding. Dan rolled onto his right side, looking at Phil in Dan's own body. Everything was blurry but Dan couldn't tell if that was because he felt ill or because his glasses had fallen off. 

Dan rubbed his eyes. His dizziness was at it's peak and he felt like he was falling. He couldn't tell where the floor was or which way was up. He could here Phil moaning next to him, obviously undergoing the same thing. 

The dizziness was subsiding. Dan could tell he was lying on his back now. His body felt...different. He was too warm. His hands weren't over his eyes any more. He propped himself up on his elbows and looked down. 'Phil!' He exclaimed. I'm back! We switched back!' Dan passed the fallen glasses back to Phil so he could see again. 

'Aw...' He sighed. 'Phil-vision sucks!' 

'Yeah, you're not kidding. You're blind as shit.' Dan smiled. 

Phil sat up on his knees, facing Dan. 'So...do you want a cup of special-herbal-green-tea-or-something?' 

'NO!' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Duncan and Mimei - two YouTubers who live in Japan who Dan and Phil have talked about and are friends with. They're really cool and I watch their videos (Duncan's videos need subtitles but he does that himself so it's all accurate). Their channel links are below. :D  
>  https://www.youtube.com/user/mimei  
>  https://www.youtube.com/user/PDRKabushikigaisha 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who read this far and commented and left kudos :D I definitely want to write more fanfics, and I sort of have an idea in mind for one (ft. Phan, tons of fluff and robots) but I'd rather get ahead of myself so that I don't post the chapters so late like I did here. Please give me honest opinions, thanks everyone :3 
> 
> The ending (going to Japan, due to Phil, and seeing Duncan and Mimei) ended up happening in real life OH MY GOD I HAVE THE POWER If you have any requests on what should happen in real life next then please send me your fic ideas 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. So this was the first fanfic I've ever written, so please tell me if you liked it or how I can improve!


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